You just slip on the PC as you would a backpack … then the VR headset … then a pair of headphones … and you’re ready to go.

VR overkill or a great idea? MSI says safety is a big benefit.

Fei Wang, Product marketing, MSI“When you’re totally in the VR experience, you cannot see what’s outside so it’s really dangerous for the users when they’re playing and they are fulling immersed in the game and they have to move around.”

So, strap it all on your back and the tripping over cables problem is gone.

But you can also strap a cellphone to your face with Google cardboard and you won’t trip over cables. The Backpack PC delivers much better graphics.

Fei Wang, Product marketing, MSIOur product, the backpack you’re looking at right now, it has an Intel K series CPU inside and for the graphics card it has an Nvidia GTX980 inside, which means it’s able to provide all the heavy loading VR experience.

Indeed it does. I tried it on and it was a lot of fun. I easily got carried away by the game, a space shoot-em up, and forgot about all the gear strapped on.

So is it the future of VR? Maybe. It’s easy to imagine this kind of thing becoming more popular as technology allows its size to shrink. But for now, its appeal might be limited to gamers.

MSI isn’t saying much about how much it will cost - the design and specifications will change between now and sometime in the second half of 2016 when it goes on sale.